A variety of nozzles have been designed over the years wherein their structure has been improved to add to the convenience of usage of the nozzles while dispensing fuel to a vehicle, or other fuel container, and while generally being applied to recover vapors, so as to minimize air pollution during fuel dispensing. With these types of nozzles, whether it is of the vacuum assist type, and more particularly the balanced pressure type of nozzle, the amount of pressure and force necessary to operate the nozzles generally was ignored, in order to attain these other results.
The assignee of the current invention has made many improvements to nozzle constructions, through usage of the hand lever for acting in conjunction with the stem of the poppet valve, to elevate it to achieve fuel dispensing, and at the same time, provide for automatic shutoff of the flow of fuel through the nozzle, through the operations of its vacuum pressured automatic shutoff means, that would release the hand lever for its disengagement allowing for the poppet valve to immediately close, and cease the transfer of fuel through the nozzle. Such can be seen in the Company's early U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,987, upon a No Pressure Shut off for Automatic Fuel Nozzle Valve.
Other patents of the assignee have tried to make improvements to the structure of the nozzle, such as can be seen in the Poppet Valve Means of U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,447. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,278 shows a Balanced, Two-Stage Poppet Valve for Fuel Dispensing Nozzle. While these nozzles worked highly satisfactory for their intended purposes, and that is to dispense fuel quickly and efficiently, the structure of the shown handle lever for the disclosed patent still required a fair amount of force to be exerted upon the lever, to raise it, and its associated poppet stem, to attain an opening of the nozzle for dispensing. This type of force made it rather difficult for the handicapped and elderly to dispense fuel, particularly at a self-serving dispenser, and it required further modifications to the nozzle, to remedy this problem.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,909, upon a Vapor Control Valve, showed further modifications to the structure of its nozzle, and its various operating components, to achieve more efficient fuel dispensing, and also for capturing vapors that are returned through the nozzle to a storage area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,115 shows a Specialty Fuel Dispensing Nozzle, of the balance pressure type, and it also required a substantial amount of force on behalf of the user, for inserting and compressing the bellows of the nozzle tightly against the fuel intake for a vehicle in which the nozzle was used, to capture vapors, and to replenish the auto with fuel. Furthermore, it required a fair amount of force, generally in the 8-10 lb range, to lift the hand lever, to initiate the operations of the nozzle, during a refueling operation.
Another patent to the assignee is U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,910, which showed a Fuel Dispensing Nozzle with Automatic Shut-Off Responsive to Vapor Pressure. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,930, discloses an early Automatic Shut-Off Nozzle with Lockable Vapor Relief Valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,014 shows an early effort by the applicant to make it more easier and controllable to dispense fuel through a nozzle, wherein the engagement of the handle with the poppet valve stem was designed to provide the user with more leverage to open the valve assembly than was available at that time in conventional nozzle configurations. This was an early effort to rearrange the fulcrum of pressure exerted upon the poppet stem, through the handle, in order to reduce the force necessary to raise it and its poppet valve into a fuel dispensing position.
The current invention is designed to even further adjust the arrangement and configuration of various components of the nozzle, such as its poppet stem, its handle lever, and its latch plate, all in an effort to further reduce the force necessary to allow for fuel dispensing, and also, provides for further modifications to the poppet valve itself, in order to enhance and accelerate the flow of fuel through the nozzle, when replenishing a vehicle fuel tank, and to make the nozzle more easy to use.